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About Joyce Clark

Contact information for Councilmember Joyce Clark
Home: 623-772-9795
Cell: 602-320-3422
Office: 623-930-2249
Please call between the hours of 9 AM - 5 PM
Email:
clarkjv@aol.com
jclark@glendaleaz.com
Joyce Clark is a 49 year resident of Glendale. She has a BA in History and Education and graduated from the College of Notre Dame of Maryland. Her past careers include teacher of high school history, small business ownership of a book store, a professional ceramist and was the founder of a retail craft gallery. Joyce and her husband, Charles, have three children and seven grandchildren.

Joyce was first elected as your Yucca district Councilmember in 1992 and served Glendale and the Yucca district from 1992 to 1996. Joyce took a four year break from public service when her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s to personally care for her. In 2000 she successfully ran again for Yucca district councilmember as a write in candidate against the incumbent. She is the only candidate in Arizona to achieve a write in victory over an incumbent. She was your voice for the Yucca district for 16 years.

Joyce retired in December, 2012, and as a private citizen Joyce did many of the things she never had the time to pursue. Two of those are the tender care and feeding of her koi pond and blog writing on issues in Glendale, Arizona.

In March of 2016, Joyce announced that she would leave retirement and run for the Yucca district council seat in Glendale. Once again Joyce defeated an incumbent and on December 13, 2016 she took office as the Yucca district councilmember for another four year term, ending in December of 2020.

Joyce is the only elected official in the State of Arizona to have defeated an incumbent as a write-in candidate and then to defeat a second, different incumbent as a candidate.

It appears Glendale City Manager Brenda Fischer has a vicious temper. Rumors have circulated since she came on board in Glendale but employees have been reluctant to go on record and to share specific incidents. All have been within City Hall – until last week.

A little background first. Robert Heidt is the Glendale Chamber’s new President and CEO. He had been approached by a Chamber member, John and Alice Roach, owners of the White Eyes Fresh Fry Bread Company. The Roachs are Glendale residents. Apparently they have applied for entry to numerous Glendale events only to be turned down repeatedly. Mr. Heidt had been dealing with Glendale’s Communications Department (which runs all City events) for several months in order to obtain clarification on vendor policy and to advocate for the Roachs’ participation.

Darrell Jackson of the Glendale Star has an article about a confrontation Glendale City Manager Brenda Fischer recently and publicly had with Mr. Heidt. Here is the link: http://www.glendalestar.com/news/article_314b5612-a265-11e4-b241-87a6efc2a085.html . Last week Mr. Heidt was having a pleasant working lunch at the Yard House at Westgate. Ms. Fischer was also there, a few tables away, having lunch with several Glendale employees. At some point Ms. Fischer approached Mr. Heidt’s table and proceeded to publicly berate him over the White Eyes Fresh Fry Bread Company complaint. She was loud enough to be overheard by patrons necessitating a Yard House Assistant Manager’s request “to take it outside.”

Fischer, when asked by Jackson, about the incident conveyed that she was defending “employee integrity and professionalism” which, she believed, had a “negative effect on employees’ morale.” Between you and I, that is so much BS.

If Fischer were really concerned about employee morale she wouldn’t, among other things: 1. Have her reputed, infamous temper tantrums at any time, in City Hall or outside of City Hall; 2. She wouldn’t allow City Manager staff, including herself, and City Attorneys to not be physically present at City Hall on Fridays. They are available by phone and email. I believe that’s called telecommuting. Isn’t that what the previous City Manager Ed Beasley allowed Human Resources Director Alma Carmichle to do? From Mississippi? Wasn’t that a ‘no-no’? No matter the location…it does affect employee morale; 3. She wouldn’t have appointed Julie Frisoni to an Assistant City Manager’s position when Frisoni did not meet the qualifications needed; 4. She would insure that all staff information is distributed to the entire council and not a selected few supporting a staff position and 5. She would resume hosting Quarterly City Staff meetings. Apparently since her hiring she has had one, just one, such meeting with the entire staff.

Mr. Heidt had obvious concerns as a result of that confrontation and sent an email to the Mayor and City Councilmembers, summarizing the incident. As a result, the council will have a special executive session meeting on Friday, January 23, 2015 at 3 PM to discuss Fischer’s confrontation with Mr. Heidt. Expect Councilmember Gary Sherwood (and his two clones, Councilmembers Chavira and Aldama) to defend Fischer’s actions. Councilmember Sherwood not only actively advocated for Fischer’s appointment but personally met with her prior to council’s decision. His exclusive meeting with a potential candidate still under consideration may not have been unlawful but the ethics are questionable. With three newbie councilmembers there will not be much in the way of historical memory with knowledge of other, past Fischer tantrums.

Whatever the results, you and I will never know them as executive session discussions and direction must remain private. The most we can hope for is some kind of reprimand inserted into her personnel file. The best outcome would be for a majority of council to call for her resignation but that is wishful thinking.

Since retiring from city council I have had the opportunity to talk to countless city employees, from a wide variety of departments, at different levels of authority within the organization. None are within Fischer’s “inner circle.” To a person they have conveyed that employee morale is worse than at the height of former City Manager Ed Beasley’s tenure. As they often put it, “It’s the same, only worse.” While Ms. Fischer may have put out some financial fires she has most certainly stoked the fire of the lowest employee morale in recent history.

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32 Comments

No worse than the assistant chief of police going into that smoke shop and threatening to kill the owner ? Really, all of this BS needs to be dealt with. Assistant chief should have been gone but not a dam thing happened
. How can any public official be respected with this crap going on?
WAKE UP AMERICAN

That Assistant Chief was demoted. He went into that shop and ASKED the vendor not to sell spice to his son. After his son almost died he went back in and threatened to burn the store down if they sold his son any more of the deadly substance. He never represented himself as a police officer and until the owner found out he was one the incident was forgotten. I like to think I would have done the same to protect my child.

Most people would feel that way however a person in his kind of authority has to consider his actions in a different way. If he can not separate his emotions in this circumstance what happens when he’s dealing with a criminal and lets his emotions get to him. You are justifying his behavior.

What is going on…… City Manager out of control, Assistant Police Chief gonna kill, Fire Fighters Beating people up….. WHO is running the city a bunch of crazed lunatics! Seems the police and fire union need to loose some power within running this city and the city manager allows this to happen. This is a war, we need to wake up Glendale!

No, she goes HOME to Vegas doesn’t even own a house here. Lives around the corner from me and it’s a rental even so I recall her being quoted that she bought the home. lies, lies and more lies. And, even speeds thru the neighborhood in her SUV like she is large and in-charge. Wait she is!

Wow. I do not know Brenda Fischer, and would like to hear both sides of the story. If this article is correct, it saddens me that someone in that professional position would alienate the business community as opposed to trying to work with them. This type of behavior is an example of someone with little experience. This is what you get when you do not do a nationwide search with someone who has experience as a City Manager. You get what you sow. But, hey, it’s Glendale, they have proven to me over & over not to have high expectations.

The Mayor needs to suggest to her to not only be professional but at least look professional. The mop on her head needs to be cut in half by a high class beauty salon. She is not 20 years old. Imagine she is representing our city for the Super Bowl!!!
It is time we all start emailing our new council and make some noise.

As the former President of the Glendale Chamber for 16 years I had the opportunity to work with the City on a number of issues related to job creation, tourism promotion and marketing of Glendale. While we mostly agreed on these issues, occasionally we didn’t, but our disagreements were always conducted in a professional manner. That all changed when Ms. Fischer was hired as city manager in 2013, from the City of Maricopa, Arizona. She came to Glendale with a well known reputation among Chamber professionals in Nevada, California and Arizona (where she had previously worked) for disliking Chambers of Commerce. I was warned that “she will chew you up and spit you out!”…really? This was further demonstrated by her pulling funding for the Maricopa Chamber after they were critical of the City when she served as city manager there. She, in fact, questioned the City’s financial support of the Glendale Chamber with City staff when she arrived in Glendale, but never once contacted me or the Chairman of the Board to discuss her concerns. She also intentionally withheld funds already owed the Chamber for services rendered in 2013, while trying to renegotiate a lesser renewal for the next fiscal year.

Fortunately, I had limited contact with her and generally kept my distance until retiring in late 2013. However, I could see trouble brewing. Her recent public restaurant confrontation with now Chamber President Robert Heidt, and the obvious lack of respect she displayed toward him only illustrates in full living color, her intense disdain for the Chamber, other community leaders and the business community in general…a character trait that her employers and the taxpayers of Glendale (they pay her HOW MUCH?) should find, at the very least…troubling. Although I did not witness the actual confrontation, I know people who did…and it was very ugly and unprovoked. It should also be noted that Mr. Heidt and his guest conducted themselves very professionally in the face of the the finger poking, gesticulations, and verbal abuse by Ms. Fischer. This type of conduct is completely uncalled for, especially by an employee of ANY organization…and in a public venue. The fact that the restaurant assistant manager had to finally ask her to “take it outside” only further illustrates her lack of professionalism.

At the very least, the Mayor and City Council, at their January 23 meeting, should publicly reprimand her and remind her who she represents and that this behavior will NOT be tolerated.

By the way…regarding Ms. Kiser’s question…last time I checked in 2014, Ms. Fischer rented a home in Arrowhead and commuted to Henderson, Nevada where her husband, who works for the fire department there, has a home.. an indication that she probably didn’t intend to stay here very long anyway.

Did anyone else receive an opinion poll call tonight from a 202 area code with 2 questions one dealing with the Chamber of Commerce– I did not catch the first part but it was something to the effect of what I thought Chamber should be doing press 1, 2–#1 choice was something about showcasing businesses in Glendale #2 answer I did not catch@ the second question was should Weier’s be allowed to keep free tickets to every concert, sporting event,etc. After I answered that question phone call hung up! However, I thought first question said something to the effect that Chamber attack City, BUT I may have that wrong as the automated gentleman’s voice was not loud & my TV was blaring!!

Paperscrapper, I received the same robo call. Question #1: Do you think Glendale Chamber of Commerce should focus on promoting Glendale at the Super Bowl? OR Do you think the Chamber should be confronting city leadership publicly? (Not the exact wording but definately the meaning of the two choices).
The second question asked if Mayor Jerry Weiers should receive 2 tickets to every event in the arena OR pay for tickets just like any citizen and not rely on perks of the office. (Again wording not exact but that was the meaning). Like you, call disconnected immediately after making the choice to the second question. There was no identification given as to what organization or entity was conducting the poll.

Wow, just wow. If my memory serves me correctly her first City Manager job was in Maricopa. I believe she was something like Communications or Public Relations Director in the other states. In all seriousness, that is a VERY bad decision on her part. Childish behavior. Wow.

Playing devil’s advocate here ….
Why would Council need to take action?
Certainly her actions were inappropriate but she was on her own time and not City business. Wasn’t Ed Beasley arrested for drunk driving in Scottsdale and there was no Council action taken because he was not on City business.

Perhaps Glendale needs to focus on hiring City Managers of a higher caliber. “You get what you settle for.”

If Julie F’s reply to my comment is to be believed…apparently the mayor and council were “schooled” by Ms. Fischer at their executive session yesterday. Yes, I’ll bet she “lawyered up” (at the city’s expense) and “taught” those naughty elected officials a real “lesson”. They probably were scolded and sent home to bed without dinner, too. How dare they question her authority! After all, the most important thing to her is to make sure there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that she is “large and in charge”. Please…pardon the rest of us while we vomit!

Thanks for the update Joyce. I suspected that it might be bogus…it seemed a little odd that she would respond to a comment I made on a blog, when she has my email address and could respond directly. I have not seen her respond to bloggers or editorial comments previously, so this seemed a little strange. But then…the whole incident is strange…so, you never know! Thanks again for checking.

The world would have to shift on its axis for anything significant to occur. The sitting city clerk had a 9 count felony count against her for falsifying the notarizing of financial disclosurer documents and then ordering them to be destroyed. Still employed.